FC Lahti Information & FC Lahti Links at HealthHaven.com

FC Lahti
Full name	FC Lahti
Nickname(s)	Mustat kuhnurit (the Black Drones)
Founded	1996
Ground	Lahden Stadion,; Lahti; (Capacity: 14,000)
Chairman	Urpo Karjalainen
Manager	Ilkka Mäkelä
League	Veikkausliiga
2008	Veikkausliiga, 3rd
Home colours	Away colours

FC Lahti is a Finnish football club, based in the town of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish Premier Division (Veikkausliiga). The homeground of FC Lahti is Lahden Stadion.

[edit] History

FC Lahti was founded in 1996 when two time-honoured archrival clubs from Lahti - FC Kuusysi and Reipas Lahti (Founded in Viipuri and moved to Lahti due to Viipuri left to USSR in 1947) - decided to end their time in Finnish top-football and create a new club to make people of Lahti proud. Also the reserve club FC Pallo-Lahti was formed, but it was closed down after a couple of seasons due to economic difficulties. Both Reipas and Kuusysi controlled the junior section of the club.

FC Lahti played its first season, 1997, in the southern group of Ykkönen, the second tier of Finnish football. It finished second in the first half of the split league format type league system, but was placed third in the final half behind FC Haka and PK-35 which were promoted to Veikkausliiga. The next season, 1998, was victorious and FC Lahti finally gained promotion to the highest tier and has not been relegated since.

In the premier division Lahti hasn't yet achieved as much as Kuusysi and Reipas did. In 2007 Lahti won the Finnish League Cup. In 2008 FC Lahti was third in the Veikkausliiga final table and took a place for Uefa Europa League qualification rounds season 2009.

[edit] Honours

Finnish League Cup (1):
- 2007

[edit] FC Lahti in Europe

As of July 23, 2009.

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
2009-10	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Dinamo Tirana	4-1	0-2
		2QR	ND Gorica	2-0	0-1
		3QR	Club Brugge	1-1	2-3

[edit] Current squad

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Viktor Szentpéteri
2	DF	Heikki Haara
3	DF	Henri Toivomäki
4	DF	Janne Moilanen
6	DF	Kalle Eerola
7	MF	Jukka Veltheim
8	MF	Mohamed Fofana
9	FW	Rafael
10	FW	Jari Litmanen
11	FW	Drilon Shala
12	MF	Toni Huuhka

No.	Position	Player
13	FW	Jussi Länsitalo
15	MF	Jukka Vanninen
16	DF	Jussi Heikkinen
17	MF	Eero Korte
18	MF	Mika Hänninen
19	MF	Riku Heini
20	FW	Jonne Kemppinen
21	MF	Kaarlo Rantanen
22	GK	Juha Tuomi
23	FW	Jarkko Värttö
TBA	MF	Raul De Araujo